GUJARAT

· New Buddhist footprints discovered in North Gujarat

ð A head of Lord Buddha found from near Taranga has opened a new direction for study, believe experts with the excavation branch V of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

ð The ASI team is working on sites such as Vadnagar and Taranga for cultural sequencing.

ð Devni Mori is considered to be one of the most important sites associated with Buddha due to find of a casket containing Lord Buddha’s remains. Experts contemplate whether the activity of Buddhism may have spread from Devni Mori to western side of the region.

INTERNATIONAL

· SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches Ten Iridium communications satellites

SpaceXrocket delivered 10 satellites to low-Earth orbit, completing a two-year campaign by Iridium Communications to replace its original fleet with a new generation of mobile communication technology and added global aircraft tracking capability.

The previously used first stage was recovered again with a bullseye landing on a “droneship” in the ocean while the upper stage continued on to orbit.

Gk bit – Falcon Vehicle

Falcon Heavyis a partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured by SpaceX. It is derived from the Falcon 9 vehicle and consists of a strengthened Falcon 9 first stage as a central core.

Falcon Heavy has the highest payload capacity of any currently operational launch vehicle, and the fourth-highest capacity of any rocket ever built.

NATIONAL

World’s largest religious and cultural human congregation – Kumbh Mela begins in UP

The world’s largest religious and cultural human congregation -Kumbh 2019 has begun with the holy dip at Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati at Prayagraj.

The first bathing was taken by saints and seers of different Akharas. According to Kumbh Mela administration around one crore 25 lakh devotees area expected on this Royal bathing Makar Sankranti.

Kumbha Mela is a mass Hindu pilgrimage of faith in which Hindus gather to bathe in a sacred or holy river. Traditionally, four fairs are widely recognized as the Kumbh Melas: the Prayagraj Kumbh Mela, Haridwar Kumbh Mela, the Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Simhastha, and Ujjain Simhastha.

Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2018-19 (Series-V) opens

The Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2018-19 (Series-V) opened on 14 January for subscription. It will continue till 18 January. The issue price of the Bond during this subscription period will be three thousand two hundred and fourteen rupees per gram with the settlement date of January 22nd 2019.
The Centre in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India has decided to allow discount of 50 rupees per gram from the issue price to those investors who apply on-line and make the payment through digital mode.

Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme (SGBS) is one of the three gold related schemes launched by the PM in November 2015. It gives the people to invest their gold into sovereign bonds. Bonds are one of the three assets, the other being stocks and cash.

· Prime Minister Narendra Modi released commemorative coin on Sikh Guru Gobind Singh in New Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modireleased a commemorative coin of 350 rupees on Guru Govind Singh ji in New Delhi on the eve of 352nd birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru.
He also announced that the Kartarpur corridor located in Punjab, Pakistan, is being built for devotees to go visit and pray.
Including celebrations of the 352nd Prakash Utsav of Guru Gobind Singh all over the country, the center would also celebrate Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th birth anniversary.

5^th Regional Centre of National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD)

Maneka Sanjay Gandhi inaugurated 5th Regional Centre of National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD) at Mohali, Punjab.

NIPCCD is a premier organisation devoted to promotion of voluntary action, research, training, and documentation in the overall domain of women and children development.NIPCCD already has four such Regional Centres one each at Bangalore, Guwahati, Indore and Lucknow besides the Headquarters at New Delhi.

PSU banks to bring down govt equity to 52%

The Finance Ministry has asked the public sector banks to gradually reduce the government’s equity to 52 per cent. Currently, some of the public sector banks have government’s holding beyond 75 per cent.
The Ministry of Finance has authorized the Public Sector Banks to take necessary steps in bringing down the government equity based on the marketing conditions.

A notification under the Securities Contracts Regulations (Amendment) Rules makes it mandatory for all listed entities to have a minimum public float of 25%.

· Union Minister Harshvardhan launches special weather services for Kumbh Mela

Union Minister of Science and Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment and Forests and Climate Change, Dr Harshvardhan launched the special weather servicesfor the benefit of people visiting Prayagraj during Kumbh Mela at a function in New Delhi.
The service will provide information of the prevailing weather and forecasts for next 3 days through four Automatic Weather stations (AWS) and a mobile van AWS that have been installed and operationalized at different locations at Prayagraj.
The observational sites are distributed in all four directions within 5-10 km radius.
It will be helpful for the local and state authorities by providing the real-time location-specific weather information for efficient management of the entire event and also benefit the pilgrims by keeping them abreast of the latest weather information.

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